Wheel of Fortune

"Throwing a pot," as it's called, is a very fine and exacting art. I've never attempted it but have seen it done. It is almost magical to watch that lump of clay rise up off the wheel, transformed in the process. As the potter holds the clay in his hands just the tiniest pressure here or there allows the varying contours to take shape. And even though the same batch of clay may be used, there will never be two exactly the same. Each spin of that wheel brings something wondrous and unique. Only after the basic shape is established can the artist then begin to refine, decorate, and embellish his creation. Just so, each of us is a master work, a work in progress, a long work. While all of his creation is magnificent, surely people are the highest form of God's artwork, each a "Master" piece. We are very fortunate to have the Master Potter at the wheel, slowly, carefully and shaping us into something rare and fine.

Genesis 2.7 - The time came when the Lord God formed a man's body from a lump of clay and breathed into it the breath of life. And man became a living person.

Genesis 1.27 - God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Ecclesiastes 11.5 - God's ways are as mysterious as the pathways of the wind, as in the manner in which a human spirit is infused into the little body of a baby, while it is yet in its mother's womb.

Psalms 139.13-14 - You made all the delicate inner parts of my body, and knit them together in my mother's womb. Your workmanship is marvelous and how well I know it.

Isaiah 64.8 - O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; we are all the work of thy hand.

Romans 9.20-21 - But what right have you, a human being, to cross examine God? The pot has no right to say to the potter: why did you make me this shape? Surely a potter can do anything he likes with the clay. It is surely for him to decide whether he will use a particular lump of clay to make a special pot or an ordinary one.

Isaiah 29.16 - Shall the potter be regarded as the clay; that the thing made should say to its maker, "He did not make me;" or the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding?"

Isaiah 45.9 - Woe to him who strives with his maker, an earthen vessel with the potter! Does the clay say to him who fashion it, "What are you making?"

Jeremiah 18.1-6 - God said to Jeremiah: Go down to the shop where clay pots and jars are made, and I will talk to you there. I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was forming didn't turn out as he wished, so he kneaded it into a lump and started again. Then the Lord said: O Israel, can't I do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter's hands, so are you in my hand.